Kawakami: San Francisco 49ers will weather the Michael Crabtree storm

ATLANTA -- There could be crises from here to the Super Bowl, starting with the revelation that Michael Crabtree is being investigated by San Francisco police in connection with an alleged sexual assault.

Crabtree hasn't been charged with anything. He traveled with the team to Atlanta and is expected to play Sunday.

But, without knowing any of the details of this alleged incident, the timing of it had Super Bowl echoes.

Remember Barrett Robbins going AWOL on the Raiders for Super Bowl XXXVII, or Atlanta safety Eugene Robinson's arrest on the eve of Super Bowl XXXIII? Both affected teams lost the game, by the way.

The biggest events sometimes draw the biggest storms, and it's up to the 49ers now to navigate this one.

I think they will -- because I think the 49ers' offensive and defensive lines are built to win big games, because I don't think Atlanta has a complete answer for Kaepernick, and because the 49ers defense should slow down, and eventually shut down, the Falcons.

This is a monumental game with monumental stakes, double-layered with the feel of a mini-Super Bowl and the sense that the 49ers are a potential epic team, just two wins away from fulfilling their destiny.

But if the 49ers lose, it'll be their second consecutive defeat in this round -- just one game away from the Super Bowl.

So it's fair to view this through a 49ers prism: It's their moment, but if they miss their turn, who knows if they'll keep getting shots at this.

Jim Harbaugh's 49ers are a goliath -- installed as comfortable Las Vegas favorites, even on the road, even with Colin Kaepernick, a QB legend-in-the-making who ismaking only his ninth NFL start.

And the Falcons are the plucky home team -- outmanned, almost eliminated last week and led by QB Matt Ryan, who probably won't shed his reputation as a playoff underachiever unless, Atlanta wins Sunday and then again in the Super Bowl.

"He needs these two games to really prove it," 49ers safety Donte Whitner said of Ryan, "and we need these two games to prove that we are who we say we are."

Really, that's the essence of this game: Are the 49ers who they think they are?

Even if Crabtree is a distracted or distressed nonfactor on Sunday and the Falcons devote themselves to hemming in Kaepernick, the 49ers can still spotlight Randy Moss, Vernon Davis, Frank Gore or several other playmakers.

More importantly, the 49ers are built to beat finesse teams like Atlanta -- if the Falcons can't run the ball on the 49ers, I can't see a way Atlanta wins this game.

And I don't think Atlanta will run on the 49ers.

One quick stat: Atlanta has been outgained in its last three games (including last week's playoff victory over Seattle); the 49ers were outgained only three times all season.

So, yes, it's possible that the noise in the Georgia Dome crushes Kaepernick's equilibrium and sends waves of energy radiating through the entirety of the Falcons roster.

But Kaepernick led the 49ers to a victory in New Orleans in his second pro start, a game his teammates point to as the moment they knew he was the real thing.

And maybe star Atlanta defensive end John Abraham has zero limitations on his sore ankle, and maybe Falcons defensive coordinator Mike Nolan -- the former 49ers coach -- puts his players in the right spots to make sure Kaepernick can't turn the corner.

But Abraham, who couldn't finish last week's game, almost certainly will be less than 100 percent on Sunday, and there's no other Falcon defender who can come close to duplicating what he does.

And maybe Ryan will hit a few deep passes to his talented corps of big receivers and put the 49ers defense off-balance for a series or two.

But with Justin Smith back healthy, the 49ers defense is built to play teams straight up; they can put pressure on QBs without blitzing much, they shut down the run and they eat up one-dimensional pass offenses.

So it's possible for several of these things to break against the 49ers, and they will have to account for all of them and more.

There will be little emergencies, there will probably be moments when it looks like the 49ers might lose this game. There will be drama.

You could feel the excitement, the buoyant anticipation Saturday as a multitude of eager folks streamed through the streets around the Georgia Dome. Real, live-wire energy. Big-event fervor.

Except it was for an open audition of "The Voice."

Sunday it will be different. Sunday it will be all about the game. And the 49ers will control the line of scrimmage, control the pace, quiet the crowd, and take one more giant step toward history -- and New Orleans, for Super Bowl XLVII.